Indore's lessons for Guwahati

The 'Swacch Sarveskhan 2021' ranked Indore as the cleanest city of India for the fifth time in a row among 48 cities with million-plus population while Guwahati is ranked at 312 among 372 cities with less than 10 lakh population (Census 2011). For cleanliness drive to produce results beyond catchlines, campaign slogans and symbolism,Guwahati has many lessons to learn from Indore. Guwahati was ranked 303 in 2019 which slipped to 356 in 2020. This raises questions about the approach, policy, and execution of planning by the city authorities for waste management. It also speaks volumes about the apathy of the residents towards keeping the city clean and garbage free. Guwahati is among the100 cities included in the 'Smart Cities Mission' launched in 2015. The objective of this Mizssion is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure, clean and sustainable environment and give a decent quality of life to the citizens through the applications of smart solutions. The hard realities for the city residents is that nearly two-third of the population in Guwahati do not have access to tap water from the treated sources within their premises. The GMC (Guwahati Municipal Corporation) collects household wastes door to door in the residential and commercial areas. But there is no system of segregating the wastes as 'biodegradable' or 'non-biodegradable' at the source; and both these types of wastes are deposited at the dumping site. The secrecy behind the enviable success of Indore in retaining the 'Cleanest city' tag for the fifth time lies in its robust system of waste segregation. It is the first city in India to have introduced the system of segregating wastes into six types -- wet, plastic, non-plastic, electronic, domestic biomedical wastes (used sanitary napkins, diapers, waste medicine, masks, and gloves) and hazardous wastes (like fuse bulbs, broken and disposable glass items), in six different bins kept at homes which are later collected by the municipal workers for disposal. The Indore Municipal Corporation has deployed waste-collection vans with six separate compartments. These compartments are colour-coded -- blue for dry wastes, green for wet, grey for e-wastes, yellow for sanitary wastes, black for hazardous wastes to maintain the segregation during the door-to-door collection and their transportation to the disposal units.

Even if some residents in Guwahati segregate their household wastes -- wet and dry or biodegradable and non-bio-degradable, the small pull carts used in the door-to-door collection by the NGOs (non-government organisations) has no separate compartment even for two types of wastes. Emulating Indore will require the GMC to deploy the collection vans with separate colour-coded compartments and simultaneously launch awareness drives among the city households to segregate the wastes in six separate bins. Any campaign drive among the city residents to introduce a new system of door-to-door collection will require inculcating the sense of ownership among the residents. Besides, the GMC ensuring 100% door-to-door collection is critical to complete halt dumping of household wastes on the streets. A few willful violators who refuse to comply with the rules and continue to dump the household wastes even after such a system is put into place can always be disciplined by imposing heavy penalties on them.

Indore -- with 25 lakh population -- generates nearly double the wastes generated by Guwahati daily. The population of Guwahati is projected to rise above the two million mark by 2025; and if the waste-management system is not improved immediately, the city will simply become unsustainable. Household untreated wastewater falling into the drains with its outfall into the rivers and wetlands is a common feature of any city without wastewater-treatment facilities. River Bharalu flowing through Guwahati is one of the most polluted rivers of the country. It is the result of many drains carrying untreated household wastewater into it. Indore by becoming the first 'Water Plus City' of the country has also demonstrated the solution for restoration of the polluted rivers and water bodies. The Indore Municipal Corporation has managed to stop 7,000 outfalls of grey water into the drains and also the two rivers flowing through the city. Under the 'Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban', a city can be declared as 'Water Plus' when the wastewater released from the households, and commercial establishments is treated to a satisfactory level before releasing it to the environment.

The authorities in Guwahati are facing the issues of waste management and sanitation. The city administration bridging the gap with residents through frequent consultations with people can lead to innovative solutions. That the current approach of being entirely dependent on the hired consultants and imposing the solutions designed by them is flawed is demonstrated by the pathetic condition of the city's waste-management system. Indore has set the example for other cities that the solutions to these problems are not elusive, but the city authorities must be able to secure the required cooperation of the residents by putting in place a system that works. What lacks in Guwahati is the collective determined will of the people and the authorities concerned to apply the available solutions.